


Desideratum

by PrussianInAmerica



Series: Vader Wouldn't Have Put Up with You [9]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Car Accidents, Coma, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Injury, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 04:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5898238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrussianInAmerica/pseuds/PrussianInAmerica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He would have let him win the stupid fight if he'd known this would happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desideratum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [escapebox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapebox/gifts).



> I am so sorry. I don't know how I always end up writing such angsty things. Well, this time can be blamed on escapebox for giving me horrible angsty plotbunnies that couldn't wait until after I had finished the fluff I was working on to be written. Rest assured, that will be posted when it's done. Right now it's not much more than ideas I've yet to put to paper.
> 
> Han and Leia are not Kylo and Rey's parents in this, due to the Star Wars franchise existing in their world. As such, I had to come up with a new last name. I ended up with a weird combination of Han and Leia's last names. (Rey Ren sounded doofy or I would have just kept Kylo's second name.)
> 
>  _”Imagine your OTP has a big fight that results in them not speaking the rest of the day. Person A leaves the house and is gone for hours, when suddenly, someone shows up at the door telling B that A was in a terrible accident of some kind and is in a coma in the hospital.”_ [otpprompts](http://www.otpprompts.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thank you, escapebox, for the feels that resulted in this mess of pain.
> 
> I'm not a doctor, so I take full responsibility for medical errors and will probably not be fixing them, but please let me know if you find any other errors.

If Hux had known then what he knew now, he would have told Kylo he was right. Would have let him win the fight, would have sat down and watched those stupid movies with him just to get him to stay. Anything to keep him safe.

He didn't even remember what the fight had been about. It’d been the same as any of their other fights. Someone said something, someone took it the wrong way, they argued, someone took it too far and the other left to lick their wounds. It was never anything too serious. They always eventually made up. They loved each other, but even people in love fight. A relationship without bumps is never healthy.

Kylo left. Went for a drive with his sister and didn't come back. Hux settled in for a long night of watching the History Channel and feeling like shit.

Then the phone rang, and Rey was telling him there’d been an accident. That Kylo was hurt. He couldn’t hear much beyond that over the roaring in his ears. Finn found him like that, standing in their living room, hyperventilating into his phone. Everything after that was a blur. Someone told him Kylo was stable, but unconscious. Someone else sat with him in the waiting room, muttering nonsense that was probably supposed to calm him. Kylo and Rey’s parents came through, barely stopping to ask how he was doing before rushing off to find Rey.

Hours later a doctor came and told them he could go see Kylo. He was still under – the words “medically induced coma” were bandied about – but Hux just needed to _see_ him. _Know_ he was still alive.

The man he saw in the bed assigned to Kylo Ren-Sorgana was _not_ his Kylo. Kylo never looked so _weak_. Kylo’s hair would never be shorn so short, no matter if it kept it out of the way of the bandages he wore now. It simply wasn’t Kylo.

His face was more than half covered in bandages, and it made Hux think of when they’d met. It’d been in this hospital, in the waiting room Hux had just been in. Kylo had looked like the world’s weirdest Star Wars fan, covered in Vader merchandise and blood. Hux had thought he was the biggest dork he’d ever met. He still thought that.

Hux wasn't sure how long he stayed there, sitting by Kylo, willing him to just _open his goddamn eyes_ , but eventually a nurse came by to tell him visiting hours were over and he was faced with the realization that he’d have to go home alone. That he'd have to go to bed alone, without Kylo there to leech his body heat all night. He’d wake up in the morning and no one would be there to demand coffee – black _like his soul_ , but maybe just a little milk and sugar? – from him. No one would be lounging on the couch watching Star Wars when he got back from the library, having not moved all day. No one would-

Finn brought him home and made him eat something before putting him in bed. He relayed Phasma’s threat to _make_ him go to sleep if Hux didn't at least try and left. If Hux could have felt anything but worry he might have felt relieved that the younger man didn't try to take pity on him in some way

He’d hoped he would at least be able to fall asleep quickly, but after an hour of staring at Kylo’s empty side of the bed Hux took the injured fanboy’s Darth Vader pillow and blanket out to the living room. He set them on the couch and started Revenge of the Sith, adjusting the volume so that it would barely be heard from the bedroom. Back in bed, he took the time to convince his sleepy mind that Kylo was just having another marathon and would be in bed soon. He turned his back to the left side of the bed and was asleep before Windu’s death.

Phasma found him back in Kylo’s room the next afternoon, staring at the comatose man like he could heal his injuries with his mind.

“How long have you been here?”

He kept his eyes on the mass of bandages where his lover’s face should be. “Visiting hours started at nine-thirty.”

“What time did you get here?”

“Seven.”

She heaved an exasperated sigh. “Alright,” A strong hand gripped the back of his shirt – Kylo’s shirt, actually – and hauled him out of the chair he’d been sitting in since a nurse took pity on him at nine. “We’re going out for lunch. Vader-boy will still be here when we get back.

The next two days went like that. Hux would camp out in Kylo's room until someone – a nurse, friend, or family member of Kylo’s – made him leave, then he would eat and sleep. Sometimes he could make himself actually do some work, but he didn't get much done.

On the fourth day, Kylo woke up. Hux hadn't noticed at first, busy watching his own thumb trace circles on the back of Kylo’s left hand. The fingers in his had twitched a bit and he looked at the other man’s face, surprised to find his one visible eye open, staring back at him. For the first time in days, the worry washed away and he was only left with relief.

The doctors had run Kylo through multiple tests, ensuring his memory was what it should be. His memory of the accident was spotty, but Hux was assured this was normal. Every doctor took time to impress on them both how lucky Kylo was that the large shard of glass that had neatly bisected his face hadn't been forced any deeper. He would have a scar, probably for the rest of his life, but that would be the only lasting damage. The other minor cuts and bruises would heal quickly and soon this would be a distant memory.

Kylo didn't get to see himself until the largest cut was almost fully healed. Hux had been changing the dressing for it himself since they left the hospital, keeping his face carefully neutral while it was out in the open. The last thing Kylo had needed was more stress. When he finally saw it he threw the handheld mirror across the room and locked himself in their room, alone.

Hux carefully cleaned up the shards and sat down next to the bedroom door, listening to his partner restlessly move about the room. When Kylo let him in, he redid the bandages and curled up in bed with the man. He rubbed the upset man’s back and ran his fingers through the hair that barely fell over his ears now, silently vowing that he would make this right.


End file.
